The primary objective of the research is to examine the attempt of new urbanism principles to promote a sense of community through its pedestrian-oriented design guidelines of neighborhoods. The following questions will be addressed to examine the subject. First, do residents of a new urbanism neighborhood have a higher level of sense of community than residents of a typical suburban neighborhood? Second, is there an evidential support that pedestrian-oriented design features of new urbanism enhance the sense of community in a neighborhood? Finally, do residents of a pedestrian-oriented design neighborhood have more out-of-door activities in their neighborhood than residents of a typical suburban neighborhood? To examine the relationship between neighborhood design and sense of community, a comparative study was conducted in four subdivision neighborhoods located in the Houston metropolis, Texas. The first two neighborhoods exhibit pedestrian-oriented design principles and features of new urbanism, although each to different degrees. The other two neighborhoods are typical suburban neighborhoods that are not specifically designed to accommodate pedestrians and usually have less public spaces. The methods of collecting data are self-administered questionnaires, systematic observations, and unstructured interviews of residents in the four neighborhoods. The research findings provide evidence that the residents in pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods have a higher level of supportive acts of neighboring (SAON) and neighborhood attachment & weak social ties (NA&WST) than those of typical suburban neighborhoods. The findings also provide partial support for the relationships between the design factor (pedestrian-oriented design) and two dimensions of sense of community investigated-SAON and NA&WST. Additionally, the findings strongly indicate that the social processes, measured through selected demographic and nonenvironmental design variables, have their own unique and vital role on the sense of community in the neighborhoods, and that physical design has no impact on the way the social processes work on the sense of community in the neighborhood. The roles of physical design and social process are independent from each other. Finally, the results partially support the hypothesis that residents of pedestrian-oriented design neighborhoods have a higher level of out-of-door activities than residents of typical suburban neighborhoods.

The purpose of this research is to measure impacts on environmental constraint areas due to the presence of new suburban populations, to assess attitudes and behaviours of residents toward greenspaces incorporated into the design of the community and to attempt to project if the City of Waterloo’s vision for suburban development in the proximity of environmentally sensitive lands is being realized. Analysis includes the results of a mail survey for a sample of 600 households from three subdivision developments on the West Side of Waterloo, stratified according to the proximity to an environmentally significant forest in the study area. Similar questions posed to the sampled West Side residents were also included in the biennial K-W Area Study 2005 which included 2000 households in order to acquire a level of comparison between residents living on the West Side of Waterloo and the rest of the twin cities. Unstructured, open-ended interviews were conducted to gain insight into the normative practices, beliefs, and value structures of residents. Observational fieldwork data of the study area highlights encroachment and environmental stewardship in the environmentally sensitive area. Findings and conclusions suggest a very positive citizen response to the inclusion of an environmental amenity in the subdivision design but at the same time a continuation of adverse environmental impacts resulting from population growth, and minimal suburban lifestyle change in this community which aspired to incorporate the principles of new urbanism.

The purpose of this research is to measure impacts on environmental constraint areas due to the presence of new suburban populations, to assess attitudes and behaviours of residents toward greenspaces incorporated into the design of the community and to attempt to project if the City of Waterloo’s vision for suburban development in the proximity of environmentally sensitive lands is being realized. Analysis includes the results of a mail survey for a sample of 600 households from three subdivision developments on the West Side of Waterloo, stratified according to the proximity to an environmentally significant forest in the study area. Similar questions posed to the sampled West Side residents were also included in the biennial K-W Area Study 2005 which included 2000 households in order to acquire a level of comparison between residents living on the West Side of Waterloo and the rest of the twin cities. Unstructured, open-ended interviews were conducted to gain insight into the normative practices, beliefs, and value structures of residents. Observational fieldwork data of the study area highlights encroachment and environmental stewardship in the environmentally sensitive area. Findings and conclusions suggest a very positive citizen response to the inclusion of an environmental amenity in the subdivision design but at the same time a continuation of adverse environmental impacts resulting from population growth, and minimal suburban lifestyle change in this community which aspired to incorporate the principles of new urbanism.

New technologies have created a renewed interest in the places where we live and work by lessening the differences between the two. To address this issue, this thesis will consider the possibilities of returning to a suburban neighborhood that has been abandoned in recent history. Housing is introduced to a neighborhood which was predominantly commercial and retail throughout its history. As more people are brought into these miniature downtowns, the life of a neighborhood can be strengthened. / Master of Architecture

As distance from a house to retail sites decreases the price of a house should increase, ceteris paribus, because of increased shopping convenience. On the other hand, as distance decreases price should also decrease because the house is exposed to increased spillover of disamenities noise, light, traffic, etc. from the retail use. The study uses Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal data and a parcel level Geographic Information system map from King County (Seattle) Washington. An hedonic process is used to estimate the price effects of both the expected positive and negative price effects. Travel distance is a proxy for convenience and Euclidian distance is a proxy for negative spillovers. Standard hedonic housing price variables are used for control along with distance to other classes of non-residential uses and indexes of neighborhood street layout and connectivity. In traditional gridiron neighborhood, both convenience and negative spillovers have the expected effect on housing price. The net effect is a price effect curve with a net decrease in price at very short distances between houses and retail sites. But, beyond a short distance to the extent of convenient walking distance (about mile) the net effect is positive. In a non-traditional edge city type neighborhood, there is no effect, either positive or negative. This is due to the much greater distances between residential uses and retail uses in this type neighborhood that result from zoning that segregates land uses and long travel distance resulting from curvilinear street layout.

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No description available.

New Urbanism is an all-encompassing term that refers to an increasingly popular set of design tenets that draw upon traditional urban forms in the creation or redevelopment of residential communities. Although design professionals are increasingly adopting these design tenets in the creation of new communities, there is no research that either supports or rejects New Urbanism's underlying assumption that neotraditional design tenets are capable of fostering a “sense of place.” Therefore, this research explores how a ”sense of place” arises for residents of a neotraditional neighborhood located in Blacksburg, Virginia. This research then investigates the influence physical form has on the development of a sense of place for the individuals living within this community. In an attempt to answer these questions, this research project employs an existential-phenomenological approach to understand the specified people-place relationships. The transformation of space into place for the participants living within the study area was consistent with two distinct, existing theories regarding the development of a sense of place. Analysis indicates that social interaction in the form of un-structured chance encounters with neighbors heavily influences the transformation of mere space into place. Further analysis indicates that such encounters are not directly related to density. Rather, the proximity of the housing, the connection between the public and private realm, and the relationship of the housing to the un-built environment all emerge as key factors in encouraging such residential experiences. The results are discussed in the context of TND design tenets and a theory of neighborhood design is presented. / Ph. D.

Debate over land development continues to be an issue of dissension between developers and designer. Of particular contention is the issue of neighborhood design. A sector of the design profession has developed a paradigm primarily based on neighborhood design/development of the early twentieth century. This paradigm is known as New Urbanism. While some feel strongly that New Urbanism is the answer to questions related to neighborhood design, others feel that Conventional Suburban Development is what people want. This study aims to determine what the consumer wants in suburban neighborhood design through the means of survey research. The survey employed was based on a previous study conducted by the Conservation Fund in conjunction with Robert Charles Lesser Company (RCLCO) of the Atlanta housing market. The survey asks respondents to choose between attributes associated with New Urban design and those associated with Conventional Suburban Development. This study is focused on the Borough and Township of Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Neighborhoods from the Borough and Township were surveyed. The Borough neighborhood is a proxy for a New Urban neighborhood. The Township neighborhoods are Conventional Suburban Neighborhoods. The results between the two groups of respondents are compared to give further insight to consumers' preferences. Results indicate that residents of neighborhoods with New Urban attributes prefer this neighborhood style to Conventional Suburban Development. Residents of Conventional Suburban Neighborhoods are divided on their preference for neighborhood design. The findings show that approximately 25% of the Doylestown housing market desires something other than the predominant Conventional Suburban Development style. / Master of Landscape Architecture

The suggestion that cities “speak” has become a growing interest in communication scholarship, yet the particular ways city spaces communicate remains under theorized. I argue that the intersection of people with spaces, the networks between texts, objects, and movement are all implicated in the rhetorical process of place-making in which individuals are both shaped by and shaping space. I envision this process to involve three interdependent modes of symbolization: textual constructions about place, symbolic activities of place, and movement and action in space. The mode of inquiry proposed here contributes to a body of scholarship interested in exploring the multiple ways cities “speak” by forwarding a reading of space as text. Focusing on the new urbanist community Atlantic Station in Atlanta, GA, this analysis reveals the dynamic tensions between the community’s textual representations, the structural symbolization of the development, and the uses of the space.